- Researchers find elephants use medicinal plants to treat themselves
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“African elephants use dozens of different medicinal plants to treat themselves and their families when they are sick. This is the conclusion of a study which interviewed people who live and work alongside the elephants in the Mount Elgon region of Kenya. These particular animals have long intrigued scientists with their extraordinary behaviour – they are known as salt-mining elephants, because they go into caves and scrape the rock with their tusks to extract minerals for their diet. This newly published research suggests that the same elephants use several different plant species in the forest for medicinal purposes.” (09/24/26)
- IL: Johnson proposes 12-month moratorium on new data centers in Chicago
Source: Axios
“Chicago could halt new data center development within city limits for a year. … Mayor Brandon Johnson, along with a group of alders, is pushing for a 12-month moratorium while the city develops a ‘comprehensive regulatory framework’ for data centers. There are 39 active data centers in Chicago, according to the city. … At least a half-dozen major U.S. cities, including Seattle, Charlotte, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Oklahoma City, have temporarily halted or restricted new data center development while considering new regulations.” (09/23/26)
- Italy: Regime approves limits on non-Italian speakers and veils in school classrooms
Source: SFGate
“Italy’s government passed a decree Thursday to place an upper limit on the number of students in each school classroom who have only limited Italian language skills and to ban face-covering Islamic veils in schools. Premier Giorgia Meloni’s conservative government said the package is aimed at strengthening integration through language learning and has drawn support from right-wing allies. Opponents including some educators, unions and opposition parties warn that new rules could force students to attend schools far from their neighborhoods, while critics accuse the government of turning immigration into a political issue. With elections possible as early as next spring, analysts say the measures allow the premier to reassert her credentials on issues central to her conservative base, even though their impact is likely to be limited and significant questions remain about how they would be enforced.” (09/24/26)
- UK: Burnham signals he may lift ban on alcohol in football stands
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Andy Burnham has signalled he may lift the ban on drinking alcohol in the stands at football matches, suggesting it is ‘unfair’ for fans to be singled out when it is permitted for other sports. The prime minister, a committed Everton fan who still attends matches, said there was a case for trialling an end to the ban to bring football in line with rugby and cricket. The move was welcomed by the Football Supporters’ Association and the English Football League, but police warned it would be ‘incredibly rash’ to make changes without considering their impact on safety. Burnham has long opposed the ban, saying it is discriminatory and out of date, harking back to an era when football violence was fuelled by drinking within view of the pitch.” (09/23/26)
- Judge blocks Trump’s White House media ban
Source: Reuters
“A federal judge ordered US President Donald Trump on Thursday to restore White House access for journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico, saying his ban on the three media outlets was likely unconstitutional. In a major setback for Trump in one of his biggest battles with the media, US District Judge Tim Kelly issued his order in a lawsuit that the news organizations filed contesting the ban that the Republican president announced on September 18. Kelly ordered the Trump administration to immediately return the outlets’ press passes and blocked officials from enforcing the ban for 14 days. The judge rejected the government’s assertion that the ban was motivated by national security concerns.” (09/24/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/judge-lifts-trumps-white-house-ban-cnn-ms-now-politico-2026-09-24/
- Ukraine: Russian strikes kill 14 after Zelenskyy addresses UN
Source: The Guardian
“At least seven people were killed in a Russian strike on a farm in Kharkiv region, with a further 12 people injured. Two more people were killed in Kyiv, including one in the parking lot of a maternity hospital that was damaged. Eight people were injured. The attack came just hours after Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged international leaders to keep choking Russia’s revenues and impede its war efforts, telling the UN general assembly that ‘Russia’s revenues must remain a target.'” (09/24/26)
- Bitcoin slips nearly 2%, extends pullback after rally amid hit to risk sentiment
Source: Investing.com
“Bitcoin slipped on Wednesday, as sentiment for risky assets took a hit from soaring U.S. Treasury yields, a boost to Federal Reserve rate hike expectations, and a rise in oil prices as hopes for diplomatic progress between Washington and Tehran took a hit. After rallying nearly 7% on Monday and peaking above $87.3k to touch its highest level since the end of January, Bitcoin has given back some gains. Still, investors remain upbeat about regulatory proceedings around crypto despite the recent failure of the Clarity Act in clearing Congress. … U.S. Treasury yields surged on Wednesday amid a rise in odds of the Fed delivering a rate hike in October. The moves were driven by hot U.S. economic data.” (09/23/26)
- Israel: Election-rigging panel disqualifies all Arab parties in move likely to be overturned
Source: Times of Israel [Jerusalem]
“The Central Elections Committee voted Wednesday in favor of petitions to disqualify the Joint List slate — made up of Balad, Hadash, and Ta’al — altogether as well as Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am party from running in the October 27 election, effectively barring all majority Arab parties from running in the election. The rulings by the panel, made up almost entirely of politicians representing Knesset factions, must be approved by the Supreme Court of Justice, which is expected to strike down the bans, due to the high legal threshold for preventing a political party from running.” (09/23/26)
- Italy: Forty years after Chernobyl, regime greenlights return to nuclear energy
Source: Associated Press
“Italy’s Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to legislation paving the way for a return to nuclear power nearly four decades after the Chernobyl disaster prompted the country to abandon atomic energy. … The bill, which earlier passed the lower Chamber of Deputies, establishes a legal framework for next-generation nuclear technologies. It authorizes the government to draft implementing decrees over the next 12 months covering reactor licensing, safety standards, waste management and criteria for future sites. The vote puts Italy on a path toward reintroducing nuclear power after voters twice rejected it in national referendums, first in the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and again following Japan’s Fukushima accident in 2011.” (09/23/26)
https://apnews.com/article/italy-nuclear-chernobyl-4891b6b7c7791ae84db6b0bf0f7cf567
- UK regime to review Chagos Islands deal over lack of US support, Streeting tells BBC
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“The UK is reviewing its deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, the defence secretary has said. Wes Streeting confirmed the deal was being looked at again after US President Donald Trump called it ‘terrible’ at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. The original agreement would see the UK cede sovereignty of the territory to Mauritius and pay an average of £101m ($136m) per year to lease back a joint UK-US military base there, prized for its strategic location in the Indian Ocean. In April the deal, agreed under Sir Keir Starmer, was paused indefinitely because Trump pulled his support. Streeting said ‘we have to’ review the deal ‘because the United States doesn’t support it’.” (09/23/26)
- TX: ICE gang member who shot DoorDash drive wasn’t wearing issued bodycam
Source: The News International [Pakistan]
“The ICE [gang member] who shot a Venezuelan man in Austin, Texas, on Sunday had been issued a body camera but was not wearing it at the time, two Department of Homeland Security officials told NBC News. According to NBC News, officials said it remains unclear why the [gang member] was not wearing the camera while another ICE [gang member] at the scene had a bodycam that captured part of the incident, but not the shooting itself. Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, was shot while working as a DoorDash driver and later [abducted by the ICE gang]. His lawyer said the bullet remains lodged in his back. A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked deportation proceedings against Garcés Pérez.” (09/23/26)
- Argentina’s regime takes Falklands claim to UN, questions inaction
Source: United Press International
“Argentine President Javier Milei reaffirmed Argentina’s sovereignty claim over the Falkland Islands before the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, accusing the international body of failing to enforce its own resolutions amid the exploitation of natural resources in the disputed territory. … Milei recalled that 50 years ago, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 3149, which calls on the parties to refrain from making unilateral changes while the sovereignty dispute remains unresolved. ‘Fifty years later, the situation has not changed, but the unilateral changes continue,’ he said. Milei focused his criticism on the Sea Lion oil project, which is moving toward crude oil production in the North Falkland Basin under British-issued licenses that Argentina considers ‘illegal and illegitimate.'” (09/23/26)
- NY: Weinstein sentenced to 15 years for 2006 sex assault
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 15 years in prison Wednesday in another #MeToo reckoning for sexually assaulting a former production assistant in 2006. Weinstein, who was at the center of abuse allegations that spurred the #MeToo movement in Hollywood, was resentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting one-time TV production assistant Miriam Haley. In 2020, Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years for assaulting Haley but his conviction was overturned on appeal in 2024. A jury found him guilty again in 2025 after a retrial in New York.” (09/23/26)
- Venezuela: Regime blocks Machado from entering country three times in 24 hours
Source: CBS News
“Venezuela’s opposition leader, 2025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Corina Machado, was prevented from returning to the South American country from her exile in Panama, a source from her political party told AFP on Tuesday. Machado is considered a fugitive by the Venezuelan government, which accuses her of calling for military intervention against the country. She has been unable to return to Venezuela since being covertly sneaked out of the country in December by a private U.S. rescue team to accept her Nobel Prize in Norway. ‘During the last 24 hours, María Corina Machado has been denied entry into Venezuela three times,’ the politician’s senior adviser David Smolansky said in a statement shared with CBS News’ Margaret Brennan and other journalists early Wednesday morning.” (09/23/26)
- OH: Billionaire’s political contributions make Epstein files a focus of Senate race
Source: SFGate
“Billionaire Les Wexner has long been a magnet for political campaigns seeking contributions — especially in his native Ohio, where the retail tycoon directed a generous portion of his giving to candidates from both parties. Then came the Epstein files. Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender, was Wexner’s former financial adviser. That relationship and Wexner’s history of political donations has figured prominently in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race, which could end up as the most expensive in the country this year. Wexner, who has disavowed his prior association with Epstein, contributed about $116,000 to support Republican Sen. Jon Husted from 2001 to 2025, mostly during the two decades he spent in state politics before being appointed to fill Vice President JD Vance’s seat last year. While that’s just a sliver of Husted’s prolific fundraising, his opponent in this year’s race, former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, is turning it into a campaign cudgel.” (09/23/26)
- ICC convicts former Central African Republic militia commander of torture
Source: ABC News
“Judges at the International Criminal Court on Wednesday convicted rebel commander Mahamat Said Abdel Kani of persecution and torture as crimes against humanity committed while he ran a prison in the Central African Republic. Said, 56, wore jeans and a blue sweater and remained expressionless for most of the hourlong hearing as presiding Judge Miatta Maria Samba described the conditions prisoners endured at the facility in the capital, Bangui. … The charges stemmed from fighting more than a decade ago between the predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels, who had seized power from then-President Francois Bozize, and a mainly Christian militia called the anti-Balaka.” (09/23/26)
- IMF warns UK & US to take action on spiraling debt costs
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the IMF, issued a warning on debt levels at the UN general assembly meeting in New York City. The world’s advanced economies including the UK and US need to cut borrowing and reduce debt levels following weeks of spiraling government interest costs, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned. In an exclusive interview, Kristalina Georgieva said global economic shocks had been ‘pushing debt levels up like a staircase not to heaven’ but that governments had taken ‘no action to contain that service cost’. ‘[It’s] time to take that action,’ she said, adding that ‘courage’ was needed by politicians to take the necessary steps. The intervention comes as government borrowing costs have surged in response to wars disrupting the supply of oil, which has fueled inflation.” (09/23/26)
- Idiot pols introduce bill to ensure that Americans aren’t beneficiaries AI advances
Source: Newsday
“Two leading progressive lawmakers, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar, are unveiling legislation Wednesday that would ban artificial superintelligence and create a federal agency to oversee advanced AI as some of the industry’s own leaders urge Congress to impose guardrails on the advancing technology. The bill, provided first to The Associated Press, would also pause advanced AI development until guidelines are implemented while creating the Department of Artificial Intelligence. Multiple employees at leading AI companies are endorsing the bill. … The legislation would permanently prohibit artificial superintelligence, which it defines as a system that exceeds human cognitive ability or has sufficient capabilities to plan and execute the destruction or disempowerment of humanity.” [editor’s note: I’m shocked — shocked! — that people who would benefit from limiting competition in AI are endorsing a bill that would try to limit competition in AI – TLK] (09/23/26)
https://www.newsday.com/news/nation/ai-superintelligence-bernie-sanders-k74948
- MS: Police make second arrest in death of Tasia Fortune, found hanging from tree, seek 3rd suspect
Source: SFGate
“Police in Mississippi have arrested a second man in the death of a [b]lack woman found hanging from a tree and have issued an arrest warrant for a third suspect. Jackson police said late Tuesday that they arrested 25-year-old Earnest Lloyd Jr. in the death of 29-year-old Tasia Fortune, whose body was found hanging behind an abandoned home in the city on Aug. 3. Like Fortune and the first man arrested, 51-year-old Jarques Ratliff, Lloyd is [b]lack.” [editor’s note: One more brick falls in the wall of claims about “racist lynchings” – SAT] [additional editor’s note: Arrests are not convictions. And falling bricks would explain a lot about whatever goes on in SAT’s head – TLK] (09/23/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/mississippi-police-make-2nd-arrest-in-death-of-22445378.php
- Philippines: Senate Lowers Threshold for Conviction in VP Duterte’s Impeachment Trial
Source: US News & World Report
“The Philippine Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, on Wednesday lowered the number of votes needed to convict Vice President Sara Duterte, reducing the threshold prosecutors must clear to secure a guilty verdict. The court ruled that only senator-judges that are able to participate in the trial should be counted when determining the threshold for conviction. Four of the 24 senator-judges have been unable to participate in the proceedings and cannot vote. The constitution requires a two-thirds vote to convict an impeached official, so the decision means prosecutors now need 14 votes instead of 16 to gain a conviction. The decision could have broader implications if more senator-judges become unable to participate in the proceedings.” (09/23/26)
- What can burning a draft card teach us about agentic AI?
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by John Coleman“One morning in the spring of 1966, David O’Brien burned his Selective Service registration card on the steps of a South Boston courthouse. … On the facts, the government’s case was airtight. It was a federal crime to knowingly destroy a draft card. When the case reached the Supreme Court, the justices agreed that some actions can contain both expressive and non-expressive elements. But just because an action might send a message, they reasoned, doesn’t mean it’s protected by the First Amendment. Otherwise, someone robbing a bank to protest capitalism could argue their unlawful conduct is actually constitutionally protected speech. … Nearly sixty years later, the O’Brien framework can help us think about the First Amendment’s intersection with artificial intelligence — a technology that is capable of talking and acting at the same time.” (09/23/26)
https://www.fire.org/news/what-can-burning-draft-card-teach-us-about-agentic-ai
- Make Congress Great Again
Source: Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland“President Trump attacked Iran without approval from Congress, as was the Framers’ intent regarding offensive warfare, made plain in the debates at the Constitutional Convention. Trump also violated the War Powers Resolution of 1973 by not withdrawing U.S. forces within 60 to 90 days when Congress hadn’t declared war, given its legal approval or extended the statutory deadline—none of which happened. This is just one more recent example of a hyper-imperial executive thumbing his nose at a quiescent Congress. Yet the Constitution’s Framers intended for Congress, not the executive, to be the dominant branch of government; an independent executive and judiciary were meant to counteract and contain some of this predicted legislative preeminence.” (09/23/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/09/23/make-congress-great-again/
- Don’t violate others – problem solved
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal“Why are we forced to pretend not to know the solutions? To pretend solutions are mysterious or too hard? Because government doesn’t benefit from solved problems. It loses power when problems are solved and people no longer beg to be rescued. Often, getting government out of the way is the solution. Crime is a solved problem. To pretend that no one knows how to reduce crime is a lie that only serves the criminals — both freelance and governmental. The solution is to stop criminalizing things everyone has a natural human right to do, including both what they choose to put into their bodies, and defense of person and property with the most effective tools ever invented for the purpose.” (09/23/26)
- Immigrants Aren’t Taking Away Our Healthcare; ICE Is
Source: In These Times
by Ramya Gosike“The cost of healthcare just keeps going up — and millions of Americans are set to lose coverage. Under the GOP’s so-called ’Big Beautiful Bill’, around 17 million people in this country will lose health care thanks to the law’s Medicaid cuts, failure to renew Affordable Care Act subsidies and other changes. Those cuts accelerate after this year’s midterms. Instead, that money is going toward tax cuts for the rich plus record budgets for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Pentagon. Immigrants — including well over 1 million residents who are lawfully present — will be especially hard hit. ” (09/23/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/immigrants-healthcare-ice-medicaid-medicare-snap-cuts-obbb
- The Dangerous “National Interest”
Source: Cato Institute
by Pierre Lemieux“Politicians, government officials, and foreign policy analysts (especially of the ‘realist’ sort) regularly speak of the ‘national interest.’ The meaning of this expression may seem obvious: It is the public interest when the public considered is composed of the individuals within a ‘nation’ (as opposed to the ‘global public interest’ or a ‘sub-national public interest’). I take ‘nation’ to mean a society of individuals, not simply their state. But in reality, just as with the ‘public interest’ in general, the ‘national interest’ has little scientific or rationally ascertainable meaning.” (Fall 2026)
https://www.cato.org/regulation/fall-2026/dangerous-national-interest
- The Politics of Faking Success
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe“As a politician, Donald Trump has always been almost unmatched in his ability to direct and steer the media in ways that benefit him. Throughout his first term, Trump was excellent at making sudden policy reversals and grand, out-of-the-blue announcements that would leave the legacy media scrambling to keep up and therefore keep news consumers from looking too closely at his actual actions for too long. He would completely make up accomplishments and great political victories and operate as if they were real. … That approach of essentially creating and stoking delusions of success in the minds of voters is not actually a bad strategy for a politician. … But the fact remains that Trump has done very little to improve the material well-being of the American people and quite a lot to worsen it.” (09/23/26)
- Crazy Cultural Commissar Trump
Source: Libertarian Institute
by James Bovard“President Donald Trump signaled that he is entitled to raze the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts if he is not permitted to add his name to the building’s front wall. … The Trump administration’s contortions on this issue almost make Trump’s ravings on the Reflecting Pool seem sane. The Kennedy Center was doing fine financially until Trump took it over at the start of his second term. His behavior is Exhibit A on why culture should be separated from the State. Ironically, aside from his childlike obsession with renaming the Kennedy Center after himself, Trump has made some excellent proposals on federal cultural subsidies.” (09/23/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/crazy-cultural-commissar-trump/
- The Cultural Theory of YIMBY
Source: Law & Liberty
by Gary Winslett“How does anything get built? What are the political precursors to development? Michael Munger has an interesting, and at times persuasive, argument that self-interest combines with particular institutional designs, such as public hearings, to create a prisoner’s dilemma where everyone knows that development is in aggregate desirable but wants that development to be in the next town over. This is, in many ways, the conventional story of NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) politics. That story isn’t wrong per se, but it’s missing a critical component: culture. … I argue that three cultural practices (growth orientation, property rights norms, and positive-sum attitudes) act essentially as gates. If a place fails on any one of them, it is very likely to underbuild. Development will thus, over time, gravitate toward places that can pass all three of these cultural tests.” (09/23/26)
- Liberalism and Civilization
Source: Liberalism.org
by Jason Kuznicki“‘Civilization’ has been an anchor for a host of moral panics, outbursts of violence, and dubious state-aggrandizing schemes. Liberalism’s enemies may say that we can’t have it. And yet we must, and we will. Liberalism isn’t just compatible with civilization. Liberalism offers an understanding of civilization that’s worth wanting and defending.” (09/23/26)
- Put It in Your Own Backyard
Source: EconLog
by Jeff Polet“On a chilly Thursday evening last December, citizens in Dorr, Michigan, a small community about a half-hour south of Grand Rapids, attended a town hall meeting to discuss the possible construction of a data center on the north end of town. Some of the attendees came from families who had lived in Dorr for generations and, worried about the disruptions posed by a new data center, came ready to defend their town. Instead, to their dismay, they discovered the township supervisor had, without a public hearing, already signed an agreement. Microsoft, never bothering to send a representative to meet the public, now held the deed to more than 250 acres of prime farmland, an arrangement citizens knew nothing about until everything was signed and sealed. With the land already sold and the ink dry, the citizens’ impotence turned to repressed rage.” (09/23/26)
- Second Shot at the Second Amendment: Could Heller Be Undone by an Errant Qualifier?
Source: Jonathan Turley Blog
by Jonathan Turley“Many of us are gearing up with columns previewing the Court’s October term and have highlighted the upcoming arguments over bans on AR-15s and semiautomatic weapons out of the Seventh Circuit in Chicago (Viramontes v. Cook County) and the Second Circuit in New York (Grant v. Higgins). In a recent column, Professor Rory Little suggests that these cases will strike at what he considers a glaring flaw in the Heller decision that recognized the individual right under the Second Amendment. Professor Little repeats a common claim about Heller that some of us have challenged. I wanted to briefly address that controversy again.The column appeared in Scotusblog, a respected site that offers tracking and commentary on pending Supreme Court cases.” (09/23/26)
- Deep State Dynamics
Source: Independent Institute
by K Lloyd Billingsley“Funded by taxpayers, federal bureaucracies are unaccountable and impossible to shut down, regardless of performance.” (09/23/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/09/23/deep-state-dynamics/
- Suicides Among Young People Don’t Surprise Me
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“Of course, things like a bad home life, sexual abuse, and other things must always be considered possible factors when it comes to suicide among young people. But what no mainstream press reporter or commentator will ever acknowledge is another potential factor in teenage suicide — the fact that government officials indoctrinate young people into living lives based on lies and delusions. The fact that most young people are unaware of the false reality that they are living makes their situation significantly worse.” (09/23/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/09/23/suicides-among-young-people-dont-surprise-me/
- It’s Good To Bully Celebrities About Palestine
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“I strongly disagree with the idea that it’s unhelpful to bully celebrities about their position on Palestine. On the contrary, I think we should bully them more. We tend to underestimate the consequences of the fact that all the most amplified voices in our society are millionaires. Under capitalism the people with the largest platforms and the biggest audiences are all wealthy enough to have a vested interest in preserving the status quo, so they’re reluctant to rock the boat politically in any major way. When all the most influential voices in our society are creating the illusion that the system is more or less fine the way it is by what they say and what they don’t say, it cannot help but significantly influence public political opinion. In this way celebrities function as a kind of goalkeeper preventing dissident thought from reaching the minds of the masses.” (09/23/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/09/23/its-good-to-bully-celebrities-about-palestine/
- What is a “breadwinner job?”
Source: Sex and the State
by Cathy Reisenwitz“I’ve written literally thousands of words about breadwinner jobs. I’ve explained why they are destroying family formation, family stability, and the fertility rate. I’ve pontificated about how this deficit explains so much of American politics. I’ve stated that we’re probably not going to fix anything politically until candidates focus on fixing this. Despite this, I’ve yet to really define the term. And I think my experience can help illuminate what a ‘breadwinner job’ is and why I think it matters so much. If I had to sum it up, I’d say a job is a breadwinner job if it makes a woman feel safe enough to get pregnant. Or get sick. Or otherwise become unwilling or unable to work outside the home.” (09/23/26)
https://cathyreisenwitz.substack.com/p/what-is-a-breadwinner-job
- Who’s Against Fraud?
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“While one might assume that the most enthusiastic proponents of extending the federal government’s assistance programs would also be the most ardent fraud hunters — since fraud weakens the system they promote — one would be wrong. When individual assistance and healthcare fraud actually receive effective scrutiny, socialists and progressives can reliably found among the chief protesters. This is something to watch for, especially in light of what Vice President J. D. Vance announced yesterday — that the federal government has removed hundreds of thousands of Obamacare enrollments created for people who either do not meet eligibility requirements or … don’t exist.” (09/23/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/09/23/whos-against-fraud/
- Straws in the wind for women peacemakers
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“One of this year’s world-shaping elections has been largely hidden from the world. Since July, the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council have held three secret straw polls to select the U.N.’s next secretary-general by January. No clear front-runner has emerged. But here is the headline so far: Two of the top three candidates are women. In the U.N.’s 81 years, only men have been chosen as its top executive. Typically, a secretary-general ends up serving two five-year terms. What’s more, the two women leading the informal balloting are from Latin America. The last U.N. secretary-general from that region left 35 years ago. The Security Council’s choice this time will certainly reflect the usual backroom horse-trading among the body’s three major veto-wielding nations: Russia, China, and the United States. … The 193-member Assembly has the final say on the choice.” (09/22/26)
- Banning Diesel Exports Is Bad Policy
Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye“The proposal offers vulnerable Republicans an immediate and visible response to an economic problem. It would let lawmakers say American fuel is being reserved for American consumers. That, though, ain’t the end of it. The United States would be trying to lower domestic prices by removing supply from an already undersupplied global market while interfering with the export business that helps keep American refineries operating near capacity.” (09/23/26)
https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/banning-diesel-exports-is-bad-policy
- A Bankrupt America Can’t Defend the World
Source: The Daily Economy
by Doug Bandow“As interest costs consume an ever-larger share of the federal budget, maintaining an informal global empire becomes fiscally and strategically indefensible.” (09/23/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/a-bankrupt-america-cant-defend-the-world/
- A Scheme to Pack and Unpack the Supreme Court Will Backfire Badly
Source: The UnPopulist
by Gregg Nunziata“Judicial independence is a hard-won but easily lost feature of liberal democracy. As we’ve seen in Europe, Latin America, and elsewhere, aspiring autocrats prioritize delegitimizing, intimidating, and weakening the judiciary. Court packing would, inescapably, have this effect, which is why a Democratic Congress rejected Franklin Roosevelt’s court-packing proposal, calling it a ‘direct violation of the spirit of the American Constitution.’ As in medicine, the operating motto for any intervention in statecraft is: first, do no harm.” (09/’23/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/a-scheme-to-pack-and-unpack-the-supreme
- We May Never Know Who Bought the 2026 Midterms
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Michael Waldman“Political consultants warn Democratic candidates not to talk about regulating artificial intelligence, Politico reported this week. Not because that would be unpopular—it would be very popular!. No, the consultants warned, it’s that outspoken candidates could be demolished by millions of dollars suddenly dumped into their races by tech companies. This critical 2026 midterm election may be decided by dark money, big money, tech money. Above all, secret money. The money storm is now gathering. It could tip the outcome of many races. And we may never really know what happened. (09/23/26)
- The Great Repricing of the College Degree
Source: The Daily Economy
by Joakim Book“The college wage premium remains substantial, but has declined sharply since 2022. Generative AI may be part of the explanation, but it is not the whole story.” (09/23/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-great-repricing-of-the-college-degree/
- Conservatism’s Faultline
Source: Law & Liberty
by Mitchell Bahnsen & John Shelton“Critics of liberalism have identified serious problems, but they cannot be solved by abandoning our constitutional principles.” (09/23/26)
- Contrasting philosophies
Source: Adam Smith Instiute
by Madsen Pirie“Socialism starts with a picture. Somewhere in the mind of the socialist there sits a finished society that is harmonious, planned, and fair by design. The task, as they see it, is to build toward that picture and hold reality to its measurements. Everything that resists the plan is treated as a defect to be corrected, not as evidence that the plan might be wrong. Neither Conservatism nor market liberalism work that way. Neither of them starts with a picture of the finished society. They start with what has actually happened, and they ask what it can teach.” (09/23/26)
- Trump’s Banishment of Disfavored News Outlets Reflects His Contempt for Freedom of the Press
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum“The president has a long history of retaliating against journalists who offend him.” (09/23/26)
- New Mexico’s “Free” Childcare Program Is Another Costly Disaster
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Paul Gessing“National media outlets which rarely report on any news from New Mexico were eager to report on the big news this past November that the Land of Enchantment had become the first state to have a ‘free’ universal childcare program. Other states may head down the same path, but before they do they need to know exactly what was done in New Mexico, why so many other similar programs created in New Mexico have failed over the years, and what unique circumstances have enabled the state’s politicians to create a massive new entitlement program without legislative approval. Many progressives see these programs as a way to help the urban poor in particular, but they often crowd out private alternatives and leave lower-income residents with fewer childcare options.” (09/23/26)
https://fee.org/articles/new-mexicos-free-childcare-program-is-another-costly-disaster/
- The Democrat Plan to Redistribute Wealth to the Wealthier
Source: Town Hall
by Terry Jeffrey“Two hypothetical college graduates who are married now have a combined annual income of $240,000; they each earn $120,000 per year. Should an American who graduated from high school but never went to college — and who now works as a delivery truck driver, earning $43,950 per year (the median annual earnings for that job) — be forced to help pay off the federal student loans of these two college graduates who make $240,000? If former President Joe Biden had gotten his way, that truck driver and other hardworking American taxpayers would indeed have seen their tax dollars help pay off those loans. When Biden was running for president in April 2020, he announced his plan for ‘forgiving student debt’.” (09/23/26)
- The Commodified Self and the Designed Collapse of Generation Z
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Renaud Beauchard“Since Covid, the ‘mental health crisis’ has gone from background music to a deafening noise. It is said to touch every part of society, but none more than Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2013. The French figures give the scale: compared with the previous decade, psychiatric hospitalizations in 2021–2022 rose 106 percent among 20-to-24-year-olds, 163 percent among 15-to-19-year-olds, and a staggering 246 percent among children aged 10 to 14. Researchers spent a decade arguing over datasets. Parents look for a single culprit they can blame or a device they can confiscate. Having exhausted the managerial and therapeutic answers of more awareness, more services, more medication, and more self-expression they offer for every modern sorrow, institutions are now itching for the stick of social networks age verification, or for AI fear porn. Two excellent books written by two Generation Z authors and published this year refuse the usual explanations and their lazy remedies.” (09/23/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-commodified-self-and-the-designed-collapse-of-generation-z/
- Trump is backing a diesel export ban. How much would that do?
Source: Grist
by Tik Root“The U.S. ships millions of barrels of diesel fuel overseas each day, even as Americans face unprecedented prices at home.” (09/23/26)
https://grist.org/transportation/trump-is-backing-a-diesel-export-ban-how-much-would-that-do/
- Federal Health Care Subsidies Are Devouring the Budget and Killing Patient Satisfaction
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille“Getting government involved in any area of human life is an effective way to guarantee you spend gobs of money without improving the situation or making people especially happy. That’s clearly true of health care, a field in which government has increasingly intruded for years even as dissatisfaction becomes the norm and costs go through the roof. A recent report finds that health care now consumes almost one of every three dollars the federal government spends, with more to come.” (09/23/26)
- As Gas Prices Soar, Congress Goes Home
Source: Antiwar.com
by Dennis Kucinich“On September 15, the House of Representatives expressed its constitutional will and voted 220–204 to direct the President to end American participation in the war against Iran. This constitutional crisis extends beyond one resolution or one cabinet secretary. The House exists as an independent branch of government, with its own authority over war, appropriations and impeachment. The Speaker, by preventing a recorded vote on the Hegseth Impeachment and sending members home, prevented the House from exercising one of its most consequential checks on executive power. The practical effect was to protect the Administration from an immediate confrontation with a chamber that had voted to end the war.” (09/23/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/kucinich/2026/09/22/as-gas-prices-soar-congress-goes-home/
- AI Safety Needs More Evidence and Less Fruitcake Speculation
Source: The American Prospect
by Ryan Cooper“A lot of rich and influential people have suddenly become very worried about artificial intelligence models’ danger to humanity, thanks to several recent episodes in which various AI ‘agents’ carried out hacks of other websites and systems. OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, and xAI’s Elon Musk all now agree that the government needs to help them set up a cartel in violation of antitrust law—er, I mean, ‘pace the frontier’. Yet for odd reasons, the ‘AI safety’ discussion has been focused almost entirely on rather weird-sounding future scenarios. Will artificial intelligence models unleash an economic or social cataclysm? Or cause the extinction of the human race? Or destroy all life on Earth? Or even turn all the matter on the planet into paper clips? Or all the matter in the galaxy? The universe?” (09/23/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/09/23/ai-safety-needs-more-evidence-less-fruitcake-speculation/
- At Turtle Bay, Trump Sinks Under His Own Weight
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson“Of course, it is embarrassing for Americans to be represented by such a man as Trump: ignorant, rage-addled, smeared in make-up applied with an artistry that falls somewhere between clown and hooker along with an evolving assortment of hair dyes, doddering, bloated. It is tempting to treat a pathetic figure such as Trump the way Trump would treat such a figure. But what afflicts Trump more than whatever causes his ankle swelling is a curse that might be best understood as a form of moral obesity …. Trump is a man who seems to have suffered the spiritual equivalent of an ischemic stroke when he was about 27 and never to have recovered the full use of his faculties.” (09/23/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/donald-trump-united-nations-iran-midterms/
- Banning US diesel exports will likely backfire on Americans
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Karthik Sankaran“Sen. Chuck Grassley has endorsed a moratorium thinking it will provide more fuel the states, particularly famers. Not so fast, say experts.” (09/23/26)
- Trump to World: ‘To the Victor Belong the Spoils’
Source: The Americn Conservatives
by Jude Russo“he UN is, if not quite a punchline, at least not an institution with oodles of heft in 2026. Maybe it never was, really; as far as preventing international conflict goes, it was broken to begin with. At the same time, the leader of the free world showing up to the body’s annual General Assembly and going on one about the various wars he has started without so much as a how-do-you-do to the international community is a fresh strain. Most of President Donald Trump’s Tuesday address to the congregation was devoted to self-congratulation about American aggression.” (09/23/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-to-world-to-the-victor-belong-the-spoils/
- The Moynihan Report, 09/23/26
Source: The Moynihan Report
“Michael Musto Remembers Everything.” (09/23/26)
https://www.themoynihan.report/p/michael-musto-remembers-everything
- LPA Two Hour Lunch Hour, episode 12
Source: LP Alliance
“Join us for our anything goes podcast every Wednesday at noon eastern!” (09/23/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 09/23/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Poll: Most Americans Agree With Massie – Hegseth Must Go!” (09/23/26)
- Rising, 09/23/26
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar on conservatives such as Pastor Joel Webbon urging Republicans to embrace socialism.” (09/23/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/6089757-rising-september-23-2026/
- Reasonably Optimistic, 09/23/26
Source: Washington Post
“How conservatism went from Reagan to Trump.” (09/23/26)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/impromptu/how-conservatism-went-from-reagan-to-trump/
- Reason Interview: Anthony Scaramucci
Source: Reason
‘Anthony Scaramucci discusses how China’s rise, the War on Terror, and the 2008 financial crisis fueled populist anger.” (09/23/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/09/23/anthony-scaramucci-how-america-got-trump/
- The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent
Source: The New Republic
“As GOP panic intensifies over Trump’s cratering numbers, a veteran Democratic strategist in North Carolina explains why Trump is so toxic among independents—and why he’s plummeting in red areas too.” (09/23/26)
- The Political Orphanage, 09/23/26
Source: The Political Orphanage
‘Why Childcare Will Always Be Expensive.” (09/23/26)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/why-childcare-will-always-be-expensive
- The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 09/23/26
Source: The Dispatch
“‘This Is Western Civilization, Bro’ | Interview: Stephanie Slade.” (09/23/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/this-is-western-civilization-bro-interview-stephanie-slade/
- The Good Fight, 09/23/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Shashank Joshi on Why Russia Won’t Invade NATO—Yet.” (09/23/26)
- The Kyle Anzalone Show, 09/22/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Impeachment, Empty Arsenals and a War Without End.” (09/22/26)
- Nonzero, 09/22/26
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“Superintelligence, the Singularity, and the Singleton | Robert Wright & Nick Bostrom.” (09/22/26)
- Make It Make Sense, 09/22/26
Source: Washington Post
“Jared Polis: Why school choice is a no brainer.” (09/22/26)
- Cato Weekly Podcast, 09/22/26
Source: Cato Institute
“How Hard Is It to Rig an American Election?” (09/22/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-weekly-podcast/how-hard-it-rig-american-election
- Capital Record, episode 323
Source: National Review
“No One is a Libertarian Now.” (09/22/26)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/no-one-is-a-libertarian-now/
- So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, episode 283
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
“Robby Soave on Trump’s press ban, Macklemore, and free speech culture wars.” (09/22/26)
- The Fifth Column, episode 576
Source: The Fifth Column
“CNN senior contributor and Republican strategist Scott Jennings joins to defend Trump, explain the new GOP, and litigate tariffs, Greenland, Tucker, Mitch McConnell, and the indignities of cable news.” (09/22/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/the-loyal-republican-w-scott-jennings
- Charles Goyette on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Charles Goyette returns to the show to talk about the terrible, unsustainable and outright destructive economic situation the US government has gotten us in and the many ways the Trump administration is making everything even worse.” (09/22/26)
- TAC Right Now, 09/22/26
Source: The American Conservative
“Andrew Day and Luke Nicastro talk to regular contributor Eldar Mamedov about his conversations with Iranian officials, the Saudi-Houthi war, and why Europe is on the diplomatic sidelines.” (09/22/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 09/22/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Dark Clouds Hover Over Republican November Senate Hopes.” (09/22/26)